Monthly Archives: September 2011

“The UK is in just a bad position as Greece is we just don’t talk about it”, don’t know about you but I get a smug sence of satisfaction watching these elites squirm these days, but then again I was telling shop keepers about the 2008 collapse way before it happened, and where did I get it from, well the webbots and celente are high up on my list when it comes to matters financial, so a hint here would be to check them out and prepare for OCTOBERS mess.”

At least £1m a year will be taken from prisoners’ wages and used to help crime victims, under legislation coming into force today.

About 500 offenders who work outside prisons in community schemes will see their take-home pay cut by 40 per cent, as part of the “rehabilitation revolution” promised by Kenneth Clarke, the Justice Secretary.

There are also plans to take cash from prisoners who work behind bars, although they receive just £10 a week on average.

Under the Prisoners’ Earnings Act, 40 per cent of prisoners’ wages – after tax, national insurance and any court-ordered or child support payments – will be given to Victim Support. Javed Khan, the charity’s chief executive, said the money will be used “to deliver real, practical support for victims and communities”.

Policing minister Nick Herbert said: “Making offenders pay financial reparation to victims will require them to take personal responsibility for their crimes.

I scarcely know where to start with this bollocks, but here’s some random thoughts:

“Victim Support” is a fake charity, largely supported by state extortion. If you look at their accounts:

Income from the Ministry of Justice was £38.6m for the year. Income from other statutory bodies, including local authorities and criminal justice agencies, was £10M.

They spend a bloody large percentage of their income on salaries:

Total expenses for the year were £49.6m (£48.6m in 2008/09) of which £35.1m relates to staff salaries (£32.9m in 2008/09).

So, it sounds like Victim Support is nothing more than a lobbying organisation, funded by the state to lobby the state … evidently for more funding!

It certainly doesn’t sound like there’s a massive amount of money left for, you know, supporting victims in any kind of financial way.

Another thing to bear in mind is that the tiny handful of prisoners who are allowed to work outside of prison, often have to fund a lot of their living expenses. They are rarely paid much more than the minimum wage. So there is now a massive incentive for the handful of prisoners that everyone agrees are a safe bet to reintroduce into society, to say “fuck you, I’ll just sit here and rot some more.”

A million pounds is pretty much chump change, even to Victim Support, as it will barely fund another dozen over-paid earnest, executive staff. Who all have hearts of gold.

Dickhead Herbert is also being pretty fucking disingenuous about this crap, because 90% of prisoners will not qualify for paid work, so only the tiniest proportion of prisoners, who are by definition the ones who have done the least damage to society or have the best chance of fitting back in, are bearing the brunt of this petty spitefulness.

All in all, a triumph for the unthinking, the mean-spirited and the average Daily Mail reader. Oh, and a handy little burnish for the tough Tory brigade.

We Are Change: Manchester has produced this video of last Tuesday’s gathering with Norman Scarth.

“Norman Scarth was jailed on the 26th July 2011 for the ridiculous offence of turning on a small recording device in court. He turned on this device because he didn’t trust the proceedings that were taking place in a court he believes to be corrupt and immoral.

After a vigorous campaign by his friends and supporters, Norman was released on the 9th of September 2011.

On the 27th of September 2011 Norman’s friends and supporters gathered at the Victoria Hotel in Leeds to listen to his story of political activism, his treatment in prison and his hopes and plans for the near future.

The Energy Bandits, their Interloper and the Common Law Copyright Claim, by the Freeman-on-the-Land commonly known as Michael, recorded on 28 November 2009 at the Freeman Redemption Conference, Nottingham, England.

The Community Accreditation Scheme gives pseudo police powers to a whole host of civilians. Back in 2007, the Police Federation of England and Wales made clear their objection to the proposed plan when their Chairman Jan Berry stated:

The Police Federation were opposed to the provision of police style powers to Community Accreditation Schemes from the outset as we believe this is effectively another way of bringing in private policing

Whilst in opposition, Dominic Grieve, then Shadow Home Secretary, now the Attorney General, stated:

The public want to see real police on the streets discharging these responsibilities, not private firms who may use them inappropriately, including unnecessarily snooping on ordinary citizens.

This is a consequence of the government’s obsession with policing on the cheap as well as their staggering complacency towards the extension of surveillance.

Why then have the numbers of those enlisted in this dubious scheme and given coercive powers increased by a third since the last election?

“Fat cat Brussels bureaucrats are threatening to strike over plans to make them work eight hours a day – because they say it will wreck their ‘family life’.

EU bosses are asking civil servants – among the best paid public officials in the world – to stay behind in the office for an extra half hour a day to save costs.

The move would take their five-day working week from 37-and-a-half hours up to just 40 hours.

This would still be less than the 41-and-a-half hours undertaken by the average British full-time worker.

But unions representing EU civil servants will refuse to consider any extension to their working week, saying longer hours would affect the ‘attractiveness’ of their jobs.

Critics demanded unions representing 55,000 EU staff – 1,322 of whom are British – ‘get real’ over the modest change to working hours at a time when millions all over the continent are losing their jobs or having to work longer.

The European Commission has demanded the cost-cutting move following mounting pressure from national governments to cut Brussels’ administrative budget.